


Tonight We’ll Be Fine

by cara marie (genusshrike)



Category: Marvel 616
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-08
Updated: 2012-01-08
Packaged: 2017-10-29 04:21:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/315771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/genusshrike/pseuds/cara%20marie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carol asks Simon to cat-sit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tonight We’ll Be Fine

**Author's Note:**

> I know _Ms Marvel_ and _The Mighty Avengers_ are irreconcilable, but that doesn’t stop me trying. Set between vols 5  & 6 of _Ms Marvel_.

‘Carol,’ he said, when he opened the door to her. She hadn’t called first; hadn’t wanted to risk it. She walked in past him, put the carrier down on the floor.

‘I need a favour.’ She crouched down on the floor, pushing her fingers through the carrier door to rub against Chewie’s cheek.

Simon didn’t answer. When she looked back, he was just staring at her, the balcony door still open.

She sighed, turned to open the carrier. ‘I have to do a thing, and I need you to look after Chewie.’ She pulled the cat out, held him tight up against her chest.

‘You need me to cat-sit,’ he said.

She nodded.

‘You came here to ask me to cat-sit?’ His voice rose. She pulled a face, hidden behind Chewie’s fur.

‘Close the door, would you?’ She put Chewie down. Simon gave her a look that said she deserved to have her cat run off and get hit by a car. Probably she did. He slid the door shut anyway.

‘You know Carol, I really cannot even _think_ what goes through your mind.’ Simon leant back against the door, the city lights behind him. She’d rather be out there than face him.

‘How about you went onto live TV and said we deserved Osborn,’ she said, keeping her voice measured.

He shook his head at her. ‘What good have we done, Carol? You think the world is better off –’

She stepped forward and cut him. ‘I know that I personally have saved the world several times over,’ she said, ‘and that was _before_ I had superpowers. So don’t give me that. You think Janet dying, you think that was for nothing?’

‘I _know_ it was for nothing. Dammit, Carol –’

‘They would’ve done that to us all. You, me, Anya, all of us. You can’t negotiate with that.’ He was silent. She really couldn’t tell what he was thinking. ‘I don’t want to fight, Simon. Say you’ll look after Chewie.’

‘Of course I’ll look after him,’ Simon said.

Because that wasn’t the issue, was it?

‘What’re you planning?’ he asked. He bent down to let Chewie rub his face against his hand. Traitor let him.

‘I’m gonna fix this mess,’ she said. She said it like a promise, and she smiled, a little unsteadily. ‘The old-fashioned way.’

He looked at her then, like he knew everything already, everything she worried about. ‘Don’t do anything stupid,’ he said.

‘As if I would,’ she said. And she smiled for him, a braver smile. Saw him let out a breath.

‘Do you want a coffee?’ he asked. She _really_ didn’t get what he was thinking. ‘Is that cat food?’ He nodded at the bag she’d dropped next to the carrier.

‘Yes and yes.’

He went to the kitchen, and Carol went to curl up on his sofa, clicked her tongue and her fingers for Chewie to come.

Maybe Simon really was that fed up with them – with the superheroes and supervillains who couldn’t even take care of their own cats. Fed up with her.

Or maybe he was sick of fighting and just wanted to pass under the radar. She couldn’t really blame him that.

She did think he must hate her at least a little.

‘Coffee’s in the plunger,’ he said when he came back into the living room. He sat down beside her, and Chewie, who had been ignoring her, immediately came over and jumped in his lap.

‘Traitor,’ Carol said. Simon looked up at her, smirking just a little.

Carol smiled back, and looked away. ‘So how’ve you been?’ she said.

Because whether he’d renounced everything they were or not, he was still her friend. She still trusted him with her cat’s life.

‘Pulling it together,’ he said. ‘Starting over. You?’

‘Haven’t had a time to think about it,’ she said lightly.

‘But you’re not going anywhere right now,’ he said.

‘Yeah.’ She took a deep breath. ‘Yeah.’

And she told him everything had happened and everything she was going to do, and he listened.

He was good at that. It made her feel a little awful because he was there for her so often, and she was running away again.

 _To do a job_   
, she told herself. To get Osborn.

‘Enough about me,’ she said. ‘What about you?’

‘I’ve got auditions,’ he said, with a shrug.

She missed him. He was right there and she already knew she missed him. She sat closer and leant her head on his shoulder, and he put his arm around her, turned to press his lips to her hair.

Would it be so bad to let Osborn have the world?

Yes.

‘I’m not running off on you,’ she said. ‘I’m not.’

‘I’m used to it,’ he said. He pushed her hair back from her face. ‘That coffee’s probably ready.’

‘Forget the coffee,’ she said. And she tilted her head up and kissed him.

He watched her a moment, and she couldn’t read what was in his eyes. She bit her lip and wondered if this was when he paid her back. For taking him for granted. For being for a bad friend.

And then his mouth was on hers, hot and fervent, and for a moment she clean forgot everything it was she'd messed up or done wrong. It was just her and him, his hands cupping her face, her mouth open to his.

Till Chewie gave a yowl and fled from Simon’s lap. They pulled apart, and Carol shook her head and smiled. ‘We’ve traumatised my cat,’ she said.

‘He’ll survive. He’s had to live with you after all.’

Carol punched him in the arm, and laughed, and he pulled her onto his lap, his hands on the small of her back, and kissed her.

And for tonight, they were alright.


End file.
